Last Couple of Days

Not really played very much since my last post mainly due to having to work late over the last couple of days.

I plan on playing a bit tonight and hopefully some interesting hands will occur and have a sweat session with Rob Racing planned for tomorrow all being well.

If any one else in the UK/Europe is interested in doing the same then let me know either on here or via Card Runners.

I'll post my results for July later tonight and will be more active in the other blogs as well.

Good Luck

Chris

Bad Session - Always at Weekends

Firstly a bit of housekeeping, the first hand on my last post was linked to someone else's hand and nothing to do with me. I have now changed this, sorry about that.

I had a bad day yesterday losing $110 which now means that July has turned from being a break even month to a losing month because I don't think I will be able to get that back. I played 700 hands and wanted to play alot more but I'd had enough at that point and was starting to tilt a bit.

The damage was basically done over two hands one of which I made a mistake in not pushing pre flop and the other one I don't think I could do any thing about: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1311345

I'd only just sat down at the table when this happened and had no reads. I'm not sure if there's any thing I could have done to avoid this situation, how many people could have put him on his holding in what I thought was almost the perfect flop for me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1311347

On this hand, I think I made a mistake here by not pushing pre flop after the reraise because I thing he may have folded. He was at 28.85/20 .0 and had made the money before I sat down. May be I should have moved tables because of the high chip stack to my left I usually do but on this occasion I didn't.

This is probably coincidence but I always seem to get good results during the week and at weekends I seem to undo the good work and have heavy losses. This is something that seems to have been going on for a while and is purely variance but its starting to get to me. I think I'm going to stop playing cash games for a bit at the weekend.

Good Couple of Days

Although I haven't been able to play that much this week because of Work committments. The perils of working in an Accounts Dept at month end, I have played pretty well albeit only over 600 hands winning 3 buy ins and even managing to play with a VPIP at 14.29 which is going in the right direction.

There's a couple of hands here which are loosely linked to a comment Pkr_Brat made on his blog about playing Loose Players. The player in question is playing at 66.23/16.88 and once in a pot he could not lay hands down. The first hand I ended up paying him off which is the risk you have when playing against people like this as if the trash they are playing hits then I find that I do not believe them. However, I would still rather be playing these character's in the long run as they are going to be where I make my money more often than not as the second hand will illustrate: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1309016


I'm not sure I could ever call a raise with 85 Suited pre flop. Open raising on the Button no problem but calling a raise I don't know. I guess I should have been suspicious when he Min Raised my bet on the flop and I kind of suspected that he had a 5 but in view of how loose he was I still paid him off. Not a wise move.

Two hands after the previous hand, he lost most of what he'd won from me when he raised all in on the turn with the nut flush draw into a player who had been showing strength all the way through the hand. Not long after, I took this pot down from him when I hit the Full House on the Turn. If the other player in the hand would have reraised I would possibly have folded as he was considerably tighter, I would probably have folded to the loose player also: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1303773

Play since 21st

Its been a while since I've posted any interesting hands so here's 4 I've played since Saturday.

I've played 1600 hands at 13.45/11.58 A bit better VPIP but too small a sample. Unfortunately I'm showing a slight loss for these four days all due to testing myself at 50NL on Sunday for a while which didn't go very well. I just wanted to test myself at the higher limit for a session. It gave me some pointers and although I've got my bankroll up to the level where I can move up to 50NL due to a couple of decent MTT cashes, I'm no where near ready to move back up. Will continue playing 25NL for a while and see where I am in a couple of weeks.

Any way on to the hands. This 1st one I'm happy with until the River where I hit a bad card for me although why I reraised all in with the nut flush when there is a paired board I have no idea. Must go down as one of the worst play's I've ever made. I'd only just sat down at the table and the other player did a Runner immediately after this hand!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1296761

This next hand, I flopped a set and my opponent hit a straight on the turn, my question is this, could I have not called his all in bet on the turn bearing in mind I had Pot Odds of 2.5:1. I only have around 24 hands with him at 95.43/0.00?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1296787

The third hand I'm going to post is when for once I managed to lay down Aces on the flop to a check raise and draw heavy board. I think this was the correct play but has any one got anything to add. He was at 27.27/25.97 over 75 hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1296835

Finally, saving the best until last, no comments really necessary, just wanted to post this for myself just a shame I didn't get paid and wasn't likely to!!!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1296849

Thanks for any comments there very much appreciated.

Poker Tracker Stats

Following on from my Previous Post About Poker Tracker Analysis, here are my stats based on 27K hands played since I switched from full Ring to 6 Handed Play when Brystmar's Video Series came out, I have also done a comparison with my Stats since this Low Limit Grinder's Community Project Started on 01st July which equates to about 7.5K hands: -

VPIP

All Six Handed Hands

Button 15.37
Cut Off 12.24
Middle Position 11.15
UTG 8.33
BB 5.15
SB 10.83
Overall 10.68

July Stats

Button 17.54
Cut Off 13.15
Middle Position 11.4
UTG 8.73
BB 5.15
SB 11.65
Overall 11.58

Pre Flop Raise (%)

All Six Handed

Button 14.2
Cut Off 11.68
Middle Position 10.86
UTG 8.14
BB 3.46
SB 8.75
Overall 9.58

July Stats

Button 16.5
Cut Off 12.6
Middle Position 11.23
UTG 8.73
BB 3.47
SB 9.24
Overall 10.41

For both sets of Stats, Connecting Cards other than AK which I play 95% of the time unless there has been alot of action in front of me, I only tend to play them less than 50% of the time sometimes alot lower than than. I will generally fold these to a raise before me. With the possible exception of AQ in position.

One thing I know I very rarely do is play a hand if there is a Raise in front of me unless it is a Premium Hand. I have started calling Raises with Mid to Lower Pocket Pairs for Implied Odds Value if the raisor has over say 75% of the Buy In.

Range From Button and Cut Off

Button

Ax to A5
Kx to K7
Qx to Q9S
Jx to J9

On the Button, I will play any Pocket Pair as long as the implied odds are there and connecting cards down to 65S and pretty much fold every thing else.

Cut Off

Ax to A7
Kx to K10
Qx to Q10
JJ/J10 only




For the Cut Off, I will play most Pocket Pairs unless there has been a re raise before me for hands lower than 99 and as long as there is the Implied Odds Value. Connecting Cards I generally play down to 98.

I hardly ever Cold Call Pre flop and as I have mentioned, I will usually fold if there has been a raise in front of me.

Post Flop Aggression Factor

Another area of my game where I a can improve is by being more aggressive Post Flop. Listed below are my Aggression Factor Stats and I don't really have a feel as to what the accepted level these should be showing or how important they are: -

All 6 Handed Tables

Street Aggression Factor

Pre Flop 7.11
Flop 4.54
Turn 2.64
River 1.21
Overall 4.62

Any comments/opinions will be taken on board no matter how critical. I feel that I certainly need to play more hands from the Button/Cut Off and may be to play more hands when there has been a raise in front of me although with this it will depend on the Player who has raised. If they are TAG I would be less inclined to than a loose Player.

I know that the above doesn't read very well I have got it all on an excel spreadsheet. For some reason, I couldn't post the link and it looks even worse when I tried to Copy and Paste the information into the post. If any one can tell advise in how I either add the link, I don't have any problems posting hand links or add a table into a blog post it would be very much appreciated.

I've not been very active this week so will definately have a look at other people's blogs over the weekend.

Thanks in Advance

Chris

Comments About Lack of Hands Played

Thanks for the comments about needing to play more hands. I agree with you all 100%. Instead of playing for the next couple of days I am going to do the following 2 things: -

• Watch as many Cash Game Video's (Brymstar's Series and Fruity Pro Videos in particular) as I can paying particular attention to Pre Flop Play. That doesn't mean just watching them once it means watching them 2/3 times until it becomes second nature.
• Do an in depth analysis of my Pre Flop Poker Tracker Stats to establish where there is scope for increasing my Starting Hand Requirements, which will be the content of my next post.

Week 2 Report Card

Like most of my school reports, Could Do Better is the comment I would make:-

Hands Played: 3007
VPIP: 11.87
Pre Flop Raise: 11.11
Profit/(Loss) (10.49)
BB/100 Hands (3.78)

July Stats: -

Hands Played: 5265
VPIP: 11.68
Pre Flop Raise: 10.83
Profit/(Loss): 18.40
BB/100 Hands (0.25)

Area's To Be Worked On

Increase VPIP - Ongoing from last week
Post Flop Agression - Ongoing from last week
Take my time before acting

Contrasting Fortunes

Over the past couple of days I have had mixed fortunes. On Friday I thought I played some of my best poker for some time although I didn't end up with a large profit for the day I was still very happy with the way I played. There were no real tight spots that I put myself in and not really any interesting hands other than this one: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1265109

My feelings here having looked back at the hand a couple of days later are that I should have bet out on the turn instead of checking and possibly raising on the river as I had no idea where I was in the hand especially as both player's were very loose. The player who won the hand was at 68.37/20.41 and the other player was at 71.6/14.81.

Yesterday was hard going and I ended up having problems in a few hands. Over the past week or so, there has been a recurring theme in my play in that I seem to be losing sizeable pots to straights which in some occassions are very easy to spot. This next hand is an example of this, the King on the turn gave me two pair and the other player a straight. I tend to act quite quickly and need to slow down and take my time a bit more. He was at 62.5/12.5: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1265121

Sometimes there is nothing you can do. I have no idea what he was doing in the hand out of position and I was a 95% favourite when the money went in. Reraising All in on the flop with middle pair. Not a play I would have made: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1265130

This final hand I think I made a good laydown. I had only just started playing at the table and had no reads or stats on any of the player's at this point. Having got reraised on the flop and with a draw heavy and paired board, I felt that my money could be put to better use elsewhere: -
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1265138

Analysis for 12th July

Played a reasonably solid session today other than one poorly played hand on my part, I was reasonably pleased.

This is the Bad Hand I Played and got what I deserved for chasing a draw on the flop, hitting the straight and the board pairing. I should have folded to the bet on the flop. I didn't have the odds to call and shouldn't have done so. I knew I was beaten on the River but still put all the chips in!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1257533

Other than that this was the only real hand of interest/ I got very lucky on the River but could never have put him on 2 pair.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1257544

Doing Something I Shouldn't

I broke won of my Golden Rules this week and played a quick session of poker on Monday when knackered instead of having a day off. As a result I lost a couple of buy in's in hands that I shouldn't have got involved in or got away from: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1254475

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1254496

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1254501

The first 2 hands ~I was well ahead when the money went in but I can't help thinking I should have got away from them.

The final hand was really badly played from me. I made a bad read, and never put him on the straight which was probably obvious to most.

As I mentioned in an earlier post I have been really busy at work and haven't played that much this week. Hopefully I'll be back on track tomorrow and will be able to have a look at how other people are getting on.

No Poker

Been really busy at work and not played alot over past couple of days. Probably be towards the end of the week before I get chance to play.

Chris

Poker Stars Sunday $100K

Somehow managed to finish 123rd out of 15,000 picking up $150 in the process.

Could possibly have finished higher but am really pleased with that.

1st Week Summary Low Limit Grinder's Community

Overall I think the 1st week of this project has been basically steady as I've not got into too many tricky situations and for the most part it hasn't been too eventful.

Hands Played 2258
VPIP 11.43
Pre Flop Raise 10.45
BB/100 Hands 4. 46
Profit $28.89

There's a foundation there for me to build on but overall I am relatively pleased.

Area's of My Game Which I am Currently Looking To Improve

1. Try and increase by VPIP to around 14 by opening up my range from the Button.
2. Be more aggressive Post Flop.

Another Steady Session

Played another steady session where nothing much really happened over just under 500 hands. One situation which seems to be occurring a bit for me at the moment is I am coming up against Loose player's from a VPIP point of view but who have got very low or zero Raise percentages. How do you play against these player's because I tend to raise pre flop or bet out after being checked to and they more often than not just call. How do you play against these player's because I never know where I am with them?

Here are a few of the interesting ones: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1244288

Yes I won this hand but I think I played it very badly. I had no read on the other player as I'd only just sat down at the table but he was in a full scale slanging match with another player at the table.

I should have reraised him All In instead of messing around continuosly raising eachother until all the money went in pre flop any way.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1244300

This next hand, I fell into my usual practice of not being aggressive enough on the Flop or Turn when I was well ahead. With the board pairing I would have folded to any bet on the river. The winner of the hand was at 57.14/0 and the other player was 42.31/0.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1244300

The problem I had here was that I should have reraised pre flop with AK instead of calling his raise. Having bet out on the flop and being called I did not know where I was despite having the Straight Draw. I ended up Check, folding on the turn. Opponent was playing 66.67/27.54.

As an aside I managed to finish 7th in a $4 180 player STT on Stars picking up $25.

Steady Accumulation

Had another steady session last night where I ended up in profit mainly through Accumulation rather than any key hands.

I'm trying to be more Aggressive post flop and also increase my starting hand range at the moment in order to get my VPIP slightly higher. I'll post how I feel that's going in a few days when I've got a bigger sample of hands.

Any way here's some hands I feel are of interest and any comments or advice would be gratefully
received.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1241162

This was my biggest losing hand of the night, where I got into a bit of trouble with QQ, feel that I probably should have shut down on the flop with the Ace showing, but as he checked I decided to make a bet to try and take it down there and then. Maybe I should have bet a bit higher I don't know but he was playing at 67/0 and Ax is obviously in his range. I pretty much gave up on the hand when he called my flop bet, but the bet he put in on the river was so small with odds of just under 10-1 I had to call probably another error.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1241176

I think I got sucked in a bit here with the nut flush draw and overcards against someone who was playing at 63.86/2.97 and again should possibly have folded to the reraise on the flop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1241185

This last hand was my biggest winning hand of the night where I flopped bottom set. The other player in the hand was wild and to a tighter player I may have folded to the All In Bet on the turn with the possible flush draw but against him I felt as though I was way ahead.

Increasing VPIP

I had a profitable session today taking on board advice I have received about being more aggressive especially post flop. Didn't really have any interesting hands but was quite pleased with how things went.

I want to talk about something a bit more technical. Over the course of my Poker Playing Career, and certainly over the past few month's and a sizeable number of hands, my VPIP generally seems to settle down at around 10-12.

I would ideally like to try and increase this to between 15-18 has any one got any advice as to some area's I can be looking at to try and improve this result as I am too tight at the moment and need to loosen up my play.

I generally try and play in position however, as a rule I will fold to a raise/reraise unless I have a premium hand.

Frustrated

Only played for about an hour today. Had a bad session where I lost a couple of buy ins when I don't think I did alot wrong. One hand I had KK, raised from the button got re raised All In by someone playing 42.86/7.14. Called the All In Raise he turned over Q6 off suit and hit the flush on the River.

This is the other hand where I lost a buy in. When I played the hand I felt that there was nothing I could do. However, having played the hand back through Poker Tracker, I now think I should have raised on the Flop or Turn instead of flat calling even though I was well ahead until the river:

-http://www.pokerhand.org/?1234151

On this other hand I played today, I flopped the nut flush and was trying to draw my opponent in by not raising. However, could I have maximised my winnings in this hand by playing it differently?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1234173

Overall I'm a bit frustrated about how today's session has gone but tomorrow's another day.

Comments on Play 03rd July

I didn't play yesterday as went to a 20/20 Cricket Match straight after work which got rained off so went to the pub instead.

Played ok today and showed a profit over just under 300 hands. Played one hand really badly when I lost concentration with QQ against AA when I called an All In Bet on the Turn with an Ace on the Board which should have been an automatic fold. Apart from that, here's a couple of of the more interesting hands I played: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1231268

Opponent was 50.98/1.96, I think I was too passive here particularly on the turn and should have bet out, also I should have raised more on the flop but was worried about the flush draw. Not sure if he was ever going to fold.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1231284

On this particular hand I don't think I maximised by winnings here and should have bet out on the flop and river to try and get all his chips. I didn't want to lose my customer on the flop. He was 50.0/0.00

Overall, I think I am too tight and need to loosen up as I always have a VPIP of between 10-12%. Thanks to fellow card runners member RobRacing who pointed this out to me after playing around 140 hands with him on Poker Stars this evening. I need to try and play more hands in position.

Analysis of Play 1st July

I played over 400 hands this evening, not a lot really happened and I finished the day $0.23 down on where I started. Not too many hands of note, these are a couple of them: -

This 1st hand was one of the 1st hands my opponent played. I had no reads on him. I had AK and flopped Top Pair, Top Kicker. I possibly could have folded on the River but never put him on a straight and what's he doing calling a raise preflop with 45 Off Suit?

POKERSTARS GAME #10718014388: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/07/01 - 18:08:12 (ET)
Table 'Anitra' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: SydM ($5.95 in chips)
Seat 2: losbert ($12.20 in chips)
Seat 3: Danpil ($15.80 in chips)
Seat 4: Eric sti! ($7.95 in chips)
Seat 5: budso ($5.20 in chips)
Seat 6: mc_mat&89 ($4.65 in chips)
budso: posts small blind $0.05
mc_mat&89: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to losbert [Kh As]
SydM: folds
losbert: raises $0.30 to $0.40
Danpil: folds
Eric sti!: calls $0.40
budso: folds
mc_mat&89: folds
*** FLOP *** [3d Kc 2s]
losbert: bets $0.50
Eric sti!: calls $0.50
*** TURN *** [3d Kc 2s] [6s]
losbert: bets $1
Eric sti!: calls $1
*** RIVER *** [3d Kc 2s 6s] [6c]
losbert: checks
Eric sti!: bets $6.05 and is all-in
losbert: calls $6.05
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Eric sti!: shows [4h 5s] (a straight, Deuce to Six)
losbert: mucks hand
Eric sti! collected $15.30 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $16.05 | Rake $0.75
Board [3d Kc 2s 6s 6c]
Seat 1: SydM folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: losbert mucked [Kh As]
Seat 3: Danpil folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Eric sti! (button) showed [4h 5s] and won ($15.30) with a straight, Deuce to Six
Seat 5: budso (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: mc_mat&89 (big blind) folded before Flop

This next hand was one I folded, which I think was the right thing to do but could I have played it any differently. The pre flop raiser was 30.0/5.0 and I thought he was strong as he hadn't been raising very much. I folded on the flop due to him showing strength having been very passive prior to this hand. The eventual winner of the hand was at 16.67/8.33. I had not seen too many hands with either player: -

** Game ID 1474049910 starting - 2007-07-01 20:01:21
** Candyman [Hold 'em] (0.05|0.10 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- barnarama sitting in seat 1 with $11.90
- mattbag sitting in seat 2 with $4.54 [Dealer]
- saragj sitting in seat 3 with $10.46
- chris1969 sitting in seat 4 with $9.80
- Buzzdee85 sitting in seat 5 with $10.25
- OxPeHuH sitting in seat 6 with $0.85

saragj posted the small blind - $0.05
chris1969 posted the big blind - $0.10
** Dealing card to chris1969: Jack of Hearts, Jack of Diamonds
Buzzdee85 folded
OxPeHuH raised - $0.40
barnarama folded
mattbag raised - $0.70
saragj folded
chris1969 called - $0.70
OxPeHuH went all-in - $0.45
mattbag called - $0.85
chris1969 called - $0.85

** Dealing the flop: Queen of Spades, 4 of Clubs, 10 of Spades
chris1969 checked
mattbag bet - $2.60
chris1969 folded

** Dealing the turn: 9 of Diamonds

** Dealing the river: 8 of Clubs
OxPeHuH shows: 9 of Spades, 9 of Clubs
mattbag mucks:
OxPeHuH wins $2.45 from the main pot

End of game 1474049910

I would be interested to read any comments.

Good luck

Chris

Aims & Objectives

My Poker Aims and Objectives for July are as follows: -

1. To play a minimum of 10,000 hands during the month.
2. Review my play within Poker Tracker after each session, posting any significant hands within the blog for other Card Runner's Low Limit Grinder's to read and hopefully post their comments and advice. Any one is more than welcome to do so. I will read other people's blogs and do the same
3. To work on and improve the area's of my game which I think are weak i.e. Post Flop Play.
4. To continuously learn and improve so that I can become the best player I can possibly be.
5. To set up a Rakeback deal to increase my earnings potential.
   

Over the long term I would like to get back to playing at the levels I was at the start of this year which was 50NL and hopefully beyond but I am not going to do so until I have seen the necessary improvements in my game and that I have the appropriate bank roll to do so.

Introduction

I have set this blog up to mainly recored my progress and hopefully show my improvement in playing No Limit Cash Games currently at low stakes with a view to sharing information and reviewing hand history's and other area's of the game with other peolpe who are members of Card Runners.

Poker History

I started playing poker two year's ago initially Sit & Go's on the Prima Network and Party Poker before migrating to playing Limit Cash Games and then eventually switching to No Limit Cash about 18 months ago. I loved the game from day one and still do so perhaps even more now than ever before even through the bad times.

I was reasonably succesful until February this year mainly playing 50NL at various sites and had got my bankroll up to $2k. However, since then I have really struggled with my game and have now got a bankroll of about $300 and have had to drop down to playing $10NL. For a couple of months I thought this was down to variance and the inevitable bad run that all Poker Player's have to endure. However I now think that there are fundamental issue's with my game and I need to radically overhaul how I play which is why I joined the Card Runners Poker Training Web Site.

I don't think that I have used the site to its full potential yet which is why I have decided to take part in a scheme that peterpjames a Card Runners member suggested on the forum's whereby players at the Low Limits help eachother out and share information primarily through recording information on Personal Blog's and helping eachother improve there games with the long term aim of becoming better Poker Player's which I think is a great idea.

Personal Information

My name is Chris and I am 37 and come from Leicester which is a city in England and I work in the Accounts Department of a Manufacturing Company dealing primarily with the Supply Chain area of the business.

Aside from Poker, I am a massive Sports fan especially football, I support Leicester City and also watch most sports both live and on TV. I also take part in a Sports Quiz League which runs during the winter.

I also enjoy listening to music and have been known to have the odd drink every now and then.

That's it for now, my next post will be about my Poker Aims and Objectives.